A recent study published in Environmental Health Journal assessed the risks to children from the cumulative exposure to chemicals and pesticides in a variety of foods. The study claims that cancer and non-cancer benchmarks were frequently exceeded by children for several food contaminants. Based on the study’s findings, the researchers suggested that new dietary guidelines be developed to minimize exposure to these contaminants.

Best Food Facts recently received a comment on YouTube stating, "The worry is that there are no external differences between GM corn and non-GM corn. The problem lies within. The GM corn has been developed to produce its own pesticide, and often the crops are registered as pesticides. This cannot be washed off as they are genetically engineered to make the toxins internally. This means that target pests eat any part of the plant and die as their guts split open. Since the introduction of GM foods the incidence of allergies in children has skyrocketed."

Every now and again we find a particularly compelling statistic or graphic related to food. Today, we came across this one focused on food waste and hunger. It may seem that, in a country like the United States, where we enjoy a food supply that never leaves our grocery store shelves empty, hunger wouldn't be an issue. But if you follow any of the statistics from groups like Feeding America, Share Our Strength, the United States Department of Agriculture or your local hunger relief organization, you'll know that hunger is an increasingly real issue for our neighbors throughout the country. This infographic outlines a great deal of information on the subject that we thought worthy of sharing.

Recent blog posts and articles claiming that "superweeds" are getting stronger because of herbicide resistance have raised concerns amongst our readers. To help dig into the subject, we’ve enlisted the help of Dr. David Shaw from Mississippi State University.

When you're shopping for eggs, do you look at the labels and wonder about the welfare of the hens? For example, The Mother Fitness blog examined the differences, while One Mom's World toured a modern egg farm. In thinking about the chickens who lay those eggs, which housing system does the best job of caring for the chickens?

Last September, Best Food Facts asked Dr. Robert Paarlberg to respond to a question, Can Organic Farming Feed the World? Dr. Paarlberg is the Betty Freyhof Johnson Class of 1944 Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Since then, two blog posts - 6 Reasons Organics Can Feed the World and Industrial Agriculture Cannot Feed The World - have said otherwise. To follow up, we again asked Dr. Paarlberg to respond.

Merriam-Webster defines technology as, "A manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge." We're used to technology with the latest mobile phones, music players and cars, for example, but what about technology in food production? We received a question from www.FoodDialogues.com asking about technology in food.

What production practices or technologies have researchers found that help grow healthier food?

With all the buzz over questions about whether antibiotics fed to animals raised for food cause human antibiotic resistance, it seems apparent that this issue is at the forefront of consumer concerns. As well, we received the questions, “Why are antibiotics fed to livestock inside CAFOs or feedlots? Is this dangerous to humans?” from http://www.fooddialogues.com/. To address the topic, and as a follow up to our previous posts on the subject, we asked experts Dr. Peter Davies and Dr. H. Scott Hurd to respond.